That Time When
by akafyi
Summary: Nick and Judy go out to a bar for some much needed relaxation. When Judy stumbles upon an old friend from Bunnyburrow, things become rather interesting . . .


_**If you've seen the T.V. show**_ **Friends _, you'll know where I got the inspiration to write this one-shot from. I tried my best not to make it word for word-I had to watch the episode like 3 times to make sure-and I also hope I didn't make the characters OOC. I did my best._**

 ** _Oh, and just a heads up. I don't particularly ship Nick and Judy (please don't hate me for that! *crawls in corner*) but there is a WildeHopps moment at the end of this!_**

 ** _Anyway, let me know what you think and enjoy!_**

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 ** _Summary: Judy and Nick head to a bar for some much needed relaxation and things become rather interesting._**

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 **That Time When . . .**

 _~Judy and Nick Went to a Bar~_

It never took much for Judy to impress Nick. A lot of the times, when they were out on a hunt, the rabbit officer _always_ did something that had the fox giving her an approving smile. Whether it be her ability to knock down mammals ten times her size or being intimidating or being sly like a fox, she never failed to impress.

Take for instance one night when the (un)likely friends were out at a bar.

Nine hours beforehand, it had been a long day of staking out at a hotel where an escaped convict had been located thanks to an anonymous tip. Naturally, the larger mammals were the ones to make the arrest, but Judy and Nick had been brought along to sort of ease the criminal outside.

It almost ended with one of them being shot—that being Judy—if it hadn't been for Nick, who reacted in record time to redirect the shot and remove the gun from the coyote's grasp. It was then that Higgins and Francine apprehended him before things could get any uglier.

Nick had approached Judy, whom was still in a state of shock at the time, made sure she was alright, then brought her back home. He contacted Bogo, telling him what had transpired and that he and Judy were taking the rest of the day off. The chief made no objection.

The duo spent most of their time in Judy's cramped apartment—Nick comforting her and reassuring her that she was fine and he was fine and that everything was okay. It wasn't until around 8pm she finally relaxed and he suggested they go out and have a drink.

Inevitably, that's how they found themselves at _The Tipsy Cow_ that night.

Judy had ordered a piña colada while Nick just had a rum and coke. He felt she needed something a little stronger though, like gin with no water, but decided to let the evening play out and see what happened.

Although he didn't know what to expect, what ended up happening was nothing he had in store.

It began with them telling each other random and embarrassing stories from their youth.

Nick began with telling Judy how he once dressed up as vixen because he lost a bet. She nearly snorted her drink from her nose she laughed so hard.

"I so would have paid money to see that!" she guffawed. Nick just rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless. He was glad to see that his friend's consternation seemed to evaporate and no longer linger around her optimistic aura.

He'd be lying if he said he hadn't been worried for her. Just the thought of what could have happened made a weight drop in the pit of his stomach. He continued to have those "what if?" thoughts playing over in his mind like a broken record. Just like how he sometimes thought about the day they cracked the Night Howler case and what would have happened had he Judy not had those blueberries in her truck, or if he hadn't decided to store some for later.

He knows it's not healthy to dwell on it and that he really needs to let it go. What happened happened; there were no ifs.

Although it's a similar but different cocncept, it's like his buddy Finnick would say: better to have a life of 'oh wells' than 'what ifs'.

Judy's smile suddenly dropped and her eyebrows furrowed as she narrowed her eyes toward something in the distance.

Naturally being curious, Nick followed her gaze, but was not able to see whatever she was concentrating on. He looked back to her and asked, "What is it?"

It was a few moments before she replied with, "I think that's an old friend of mine"—she pointed in the direction of another bunny—"over there."

Taking another gander in the same direction, the fox spotted a cream colored bunny.

"Ah, okay," he said. "From BunnyBurrow I assume?"

"Yeah," she said softly, her gaze never leaving the other doe.

It became quiet after a while, Judy's eyes still glued to her old friend, and quickly became rather awkward. Nick took another swig of his drink before asking, "Do you . . . want to go say hi?"

Her violet eyes snapped back to his green ones. "No, no, no I couldn't—shouldn't actually," she stuttered before suddenly taking a long drink of her alcohol. His eyes widened at that and he raised a brow.

"Did something happen between you two?" he inquired. Then his bunny friend did something she doesn't normally do . . . sigh. A long sigh.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to—"

"No, I should," she interrupted, rubbing her forehead. "It's only fair really."

"Whadaya mean 'fair'?" he asked curiously.

"Well, you told me an embarrassing story, it's only I fair I tell you one of mine."

He watched her carefully and it became quiet again before she told him the story.

Not long after she graduated from the police academy, and about two days before she was to leave for Zootopia, Judy and her friends decided to celebrate her accomplishment.

"We went out, partied, had one too many drinks and eventually became drunk," she explained. "Not to the point where I wouldn't remember what happened, but enough to make me do something completely stupid."

Nick leaned his head forward in interest. "What was this so called 'stupid thing'?" he asked.

Her ears flushed red in embarrassment. "We, uh, she and I"—she motioned between her and the other bunny—"um . . . kind of . . . made out," she said slowly.

Aside from Nick's eyebrows raising to the top of his head, he seemed rather unfazed by Judy's confession. She wasn't sure whether or not that was a good thing, but she didn't have time to make a conclusion before her fox friend scoffed and looked away. "No, you didn't," he stated matter-of-factly as he sipped at his drink once more.

Now Judy didn't know what he would say, but _that_ certainly wasn't anything she was expecting. Did he really not believe her?

"Wha-yes! We did!" she argued.

"Carrots, I'll admit, you do a lot of crazy things and impress me a lot, but you kissing another girl? Sorry, I just don't see you doing it," he said, but she heard him murmur, "As enjoyable as that'd probably be . . ." before finishing his drink.

Judy glowered at him. "Fine," she said, "if you won't take my word for it, why don't we go over there and ask her? She'll tell you."

"And embarrass yourself even more? As funny as that would be, I'm not that shallow of a mammal."

"I'm not going to embarrass myself any more than I already have," she said. "I'm just going to prove to you that it really did happen."

Nick put his hands up in surrender as Judy hopped (no pun intended) down from her seat. He paid for their drinks before following suit.

The duo made their way over to a larger sitting area where Judy's friend was chatting away with a female Bengal cat. They looked like they were enjoying their conversation as their laughter seemed to echo throughout the bar—even though the place ricocheted with noise.

The bunny's gaze flitted over to Judy and, upon recognition, jumped out of her seat and bounced over to her all the while squealing, "JUDY!"

She wrapped said rabbit into a tight hug and spun her around a few times before finally calming down.

"Good to see you too Clover," Judy laughed. She pulled away from the hug while Clover rested her paws on her shoulders, keeping a hold on the rabbit officer.

"Oh my god Judy! It's been so long! How are you? How's the police job doing you?"

"I'm really good actually," she replied with a smile. "And the job is awesome! I get to drive around in a fancy police car and take down the bad guys."

The sound of someone clearing their throat brought her attention back to Nick. "Oh," she chuckled pulling away from her friend's grasp, "This is my partner and friend, Nick."

Said fox extended his paw, "Nice to meet you," he said. "Likewise," said the other bunny, shaking his paw. She leaned over to Judy. "Judy you didn't tell me you were into foxes?" she teased. That in itself caused Nick to backtrack a bit and both quickly started denying that they were in a relationship causing Clover to double over laughing.

"I'm kidding! I'm kidding," she said, then looked back to her friend who was still sitting, watching the scene unfold. "Oh, I'm so sorry," she apologized to both the duo and feline, motioning for the later to join them, "This is my friend Lindsey."

"Hi there," she greeted them with a smile before turning back to Clover, "I think I'm going to head out. You stay and catch up with each other."

Clover's smile fell, "Are you sure?" she asked. The Bengal cat nodded and waved a paw, "Yeah, I kinda have to get going anyway. You stay and have fun alright? I'll call you tomorrow."

"Okay," the bunny said as she waved goodbye to her friend. She cleared her throat before saying, "You guys wanna grab a seat?"

Judy looked to Nick as if asking for his approval. He shrugged saying, "Why not?" and before they knew it, the trio were sitting together, having ordered new drinks, and were chatting each other's ears away. They spoke well into the night about what Judy went through as she trained to be a police officer, how she hustled Nick into helping her with a case and how that played out, how she got the fox to become a police officer— _"Oh that's what you meant when you said partner!"_ —and how they ended up at the bar that night.

"Wow," Clover said, "You guys have been through some crazy stuff over the past year."

"Tell me about it," Nick said dryly. Judy chuckled.

"Speaking of crazy," she said, "I was telling Nick earlier about the time we went out to a bar before I left for the city, how we got a little drunk, and then we . . . you know . . ." she motioned with her hands to see if Clover would catch on, but she didn't seem to.

"When we what?" she curiously inquired.

The rabbit officer's eyebrows knitted at that in confusion. "When we . . . kissed," she lowered her voice at the last word.

Clover blinked a few times, straightening up in her seat and leaned back a bit, her posture becoming very stiff. "What?"

"You know, when we went to _Bunny Cabana_ , had one too many drinks, and ended up making out at the barn playhouse?" Judy said, attempting to recall her friend's memory.

"Wow, um, Judy," she said slowly, eyeing her friend with discomfort, "I don't have a clue what you're talking about."

"Really?" Nick asked condescendingly. He looked to Judy and gave her a snarky grin while she glared at him before returning her gaze to Clover.

"How can you not remember that?" she asked in disdain.

Clover gave her a wary glance, "I don't know Judy. It's hard for me to remember something that didn't happen."

"Wha—Come on!" she exclaimed. "We were backstage and we couldn't stop laughing . . .?"

The other rabbit still looked at Judy unease.

"Look, I don't wanna make you uncomfortable, and I'm sorry if I am, but I told Nick it happened and he doesn't believe me," she said.

Clover shook her head, "Judy I'm sorry, but I don't remember anything like that ever happening. Maybe I passed out and you ended up kissing me?"

"No!" she nearly screamed.

"Hey, Carrots, it's okay," Nick prodded. "If you say you kissed Clover, you kissed Clover. I believe you."

Judy relaxed at that. "Thank you Nick," she said, sitting back in her seat.

"But she didn't," she heard Clover say as she reached for her drink, followed by Nick's, "I know" chortle.

She released a frustrated sigh as she glared at the two of them.

The remainder of their time ended in Clover and Nick chatting away while Judy leaned back in her seat in vexation until the time came for them to leave.

"It happened," she said as they exited the bar. "I swear it did."

"'Kay," Clover said ignoring the other rabbit. "It was great meeting you," she said to Nick—who smiled in return—then to Judy, "and, uh, Judy, I don't think I'll talk to you anymore since things got weird," and hailed a cab.

Before she was able to step into the vehicle though, Judy stopped her.

"Wait, wait, wait," she said. "Okay look, that night was one of the craziest things I have ever done and I will not let you take that away from me! So if you don't remember _that_ , maybe you will remember _this_!"

Judy quickly pulled Clover toward her and kissed her.

Nick's eyes went wider than he thought they could go. He didn't think she'd go this far just to prove herself . . . And dammit, it was rather enjoyable to watch, but he won't ever say that to her.

It ended just as soon as it began with Judy pulling away. Clover still seemed to be in a state of shock as she stood there quietly.

Then, slowly, a smile crept it's was along her lips and she laughed. "Oh Judy!" she exclaimed. "You love me!" Now it was Judy's turn to widen her eyes.

"What?"

"Of course I remember the kiss! I think about it all the time!"

Judy was in complete shock. She quickly looked over at Nick who wore the same expression as she did.

"I didn't want to say I remembered 'cause I wasn't sure you'd return my feelings, but now that you have—" she leaned for another kiss, but Judy backtracked.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," she stuttered, holding Clover back. The bunny's smile fell for a moment before returning to her lips.

"Oh, suddenly shy now are we?" Clover teased. "You can't say you don't return my feelings when you kiss that well and not mean it . . ." she leaned in again but Judy again leaned away.

"I-I-I'm just a good kisser," Judy said, giving Clover and apologetic smile. Said bunny's expression fell.

"Shut up," she said, forcing a smile—one of disappointment, Nick could tell.

It took a few seconds before Judy apologized, "I'm sorry."

Clover stepped away from Judy and began laughing. "No, yeah it's fine, I mean—I'm just kidding," she said through forced laughter. "I'm not . . . in love with you or anything"—she looked at Nick—"I'm not in love with her."

The fox and the rabbit shared a look of utter shock.

"Well, I guess I should go," Clover said quickly, but stepped to Judy again with open arms. "Quick kiss goodbye?" She made no movement. "No? Okay then, bye." She climbed into the cab and it drove off leaving the duo standing there.

After a moment of silence, Judy said, "Well . . . that was unexpected."

"I'll say," Nick concurred as he stepped beside her.

"I gotta say though," she chuckled, turning to face him, "that was a bit—" but she was cut off when another pair of lips touched hers. Her eyes were wider than saucers when she saw it was Nick who was kissing her. She went to pull away, but he did before she had the chance to and he left her standing there in total shock.

"What the hell!?" she exclaimed.

"I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about," he replied coolly.

"And?" she asked expectantly.

Nick looked up for a moment, seeming to think carefully about his answer. He looked back down at her, giving her a snarky grin. "I've had better," he said before walking back toward the parking lot leaving Judy standing there with her mouth open and eyes narrowed in disbelief. She huffed before following him.

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 ** _So this chapter (and ONLY this chapter) takes place just about a month before my other story Phantom of Death. I originally wasn't planning on having it tie in with the story but I actually felt it would be better because of a certain conversation Nick and Judy have in chapter 3 (technically chapter 2) which will be posted soon. It's been written out I'm just doing some last minute editing._**


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